Category: No Meat

Spinach is one of those healthy foods that also happen to be tasty. I like to add a bit to many dishes but this casserole is quite packed with it. It is also an easy and quickly put together dinner or lunch for when you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. Yup, another lazy recipe.

This casserole has three cheeses so it’s definitely for the cheese enthusiast like me. But who wouldn’t like cheese?

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup dry penne pasta

1 cup cream cheese

1 standard size ball of Mozzarella (80 to 100g)

4 cups spinach leaves, chopped

1 cup milk

a handful of Parmesan shavings

1/2 tsp dried nutmeg

1/2 tsp dried chilli powder (or more if you like spicy)

1 tsp dried regano

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Put the uncooked pasta and spinach in an ovenproof dish.

Next, grab a small pot and heat the cream cheese, spices and milk in it until the cheese is more or less melted and the spices are well distributed.

Pour the mixture all over the pasta and stir.

Put the Parmesan shavings and Mozzarella on top and place in the oven.

Bake for 40 minutes. The pasta should be cooked by then.

When making one of these lazy dishes which don’t require you to pre-cook the pasta, it is important to make sure that all of the pasta shapes are covered with milk, cheese or spinach so that they cook instead of drying out.

This is a recipe for cheese muffins that can be taken in a lunch box to work. I like to eat them sliced and with salami or ham. I used partially the delicious Parmesan. Even though it’s expensive I always buy the real thing and never pre-grated. Parmesan loses its delicious aroma if it’s kept grated for a long time so I prefer to grate it myself. Also, a little Parmesan goes a long way, so I could easily top it up with some very mild tasting Norvegia, which is a Norwegian version of a Gouda-style cheese.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 c milk

2 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 cup tightly packed grated cheese, I used Parmesan and Norvegia which is a Norwegian cheese similar to Gouda; use what you like most

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

In a bowl mix oil, milk and eggs with a spatula.

In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and dried thyme. Mix those well and then add to the wet ingredients.

When I was a little girl my Grandma used to make a similar dish in a remoska mini oven that we had. She continued always making this particular dish in the remoska even though we already had a standard oven, so when the remoska was out of the cabinets, I knew the delicious cinnamon smell would soon fill the whole house. Ah, the childhood memories!

You can check out what a remoska is here. I can see the nostalgia is not only mine and the remoska seems to be making a brilliant comeback as an electricity saving oven. Well done! Maybe I’ll get one too?

We ate this as a normal dinner. Maybe you’ll like it better as a lunch or even dessert! This was back under communism when eating meat everyday was just not how things were, so rice with apples seemed like a very good dinner idea. We were not obese back then, so sometimes I look back into these times to see if I can find any more healthy recipes. Now, bear in mind that this is not diet food either as it has sugar.

I now adapted this recipe to my lifestyle and more modern likes (like brown rice instead of white) and this is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy!

This is very much a comfort food for me but also a way to eat a lot of vegetables. This is a feast of vegetables in an open-faced pie.

The danger here is for the vegetable juices to run and soak the dough but as long as you do what I did, it shouldn’t happen. And I would eat this dough even when soaked because it’s delicious. You can be a bit adventurous and use different veggies if you like. I know this version tastes good. If you bought kale especially for this recipe and you’re not sure what to do with the rest of it, you can toss it in the freezer and use the same way you would use spinach later.

For the crust:

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

For the filling:

1/2 yellow bell pepper

1 big, curly kale leaf

1 garlic clove

2 Tbsp tomato puree

a handful of broccoli florets

a couple of mushrooms

a small piece of Parmesan cheese

a bigger (around 100g) piece of another cheese (I’m using a Norwegian brand called Jarlsberg)

1 tsp of dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

Start with the crust, mix all of the crust ingredients in a bowl and knead until it forms a dough ball. Leave in a warm place under plastic wrap for 30 minutes.

When you come back after that time, the dough should have risen. Knead it again to get the air out of it and cover the bowl with a plastic wrap again.

Now you can start chopping all the vegetable ingredients. Once you are half way through that process, preheat the oven to 220C/425F, the best program to use is both top and bottom heat.

Once all the vegetables are chopped, take the dough out of the bowl, spray a baking dish with cooking oil, so that the dough doesn’t stick and spread the dough all over the bottom and sides of the dish.

Don’t worry if you’re not very good with dough and there is a hole, just repair it with some leftover dough later.

Once done spread the tomato puree around the bottom and sprinkle with herbs. Next start layering the vegetables until you run out. Cover with cheese slices.

This is a dish that reminds me of beautiful Ireland where I used to live. Granted, there would probably be bacon in the recipe if you ordered this in an Irish pub but it’s still the same soft, comforting goodness. If eating a potato as the main star of your meal seems wrong to you, make some meat with it but I am perfectly happy appreciating the tuber just as it is.

Ingredients:

4 large potatoes

2 large mushrooms

2 spring onions

3 Tbsp olive oil

salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper and marjoram (you can use oregano if you don’t have marjoram)

Preheat your oven to 200C/395F.

You need to cover the washed and unpeeled potatoes with olive oil. I don’t like touching oily things, so I just pour 1 Tbsp of oil into a plastic bag and toss the potatoes in it until uniformly covered.

Put the greasy bulbs on a baking tray and into the oven for 1 hour or until tender. Nobody said it’s going to be quick.

Slice the spring onion and mushrooms and set aside.

In a big bowl mix the rest of your oil, spices and chopped spring onion.

Once the potatoes are baked and the knife goes into their flesh without much effort, start with cutting off a flat section off the top. This is when I always burn my fingers because I just cannot wait to get to work. Try to learn from my mistakes and let the potatoes cool for 10 minutes at least.

Next, spoon out the potato flesh into the bowl of spices and spring onions. Be careful not to make a hole in the bottom of your potato but if you do, don’t fret. Use my trick (in the photo) and put the skin from the top of the potato in the bottom, to reinforce it.

Mash and blend the mixture in the bowl and you’re ready to start stuffing the potatoes with it. Try the mixture first, to make sure that it’s as delicious as you’d like it to be. For a finishing touch, place mushroom slices in the soft mash.

Did you know you can use applesauce as a substitute for part of the oil or butter when baking?

I make a lot of my own applesauce, I try to get apples from people who don’t pick them from their trees etc. and even buy them when I have no choice. Later I process and cook them into applesauce together with their skins. Then I use it for so many things that I wonder how did I ever live without it. The biggest discovery for me though is how it can be used instead of fat in cakes. I substitute most of the fat without compromising the taste and adding vitamins and dietary fibre instead! Isn’t that just the ultimate hack?

And here’s the first recipe with applesauce I am publishing. You can, however use canola oil instead and the muffins will still be delicious.

Amazing Blueberry Core Goodness Muffins

Ingredients:

2 eggs

¼ cup applesauce

¼ cup canola oil

1 cup milk

1 ¾ cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ cup sugar

3 Tbsp blueberry jam OR blueberries from the freezer

Preheat the oven to 200C/390F.

Blend all of the ingredients except blueberries in a bowl. Do not overmix it so the muffins won’t be hard.

Once blended, pour ⅓ of the mixture into another bowl and blend with the blueberries.

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases and to each one of them pour a tablespoon of the white dough, then a tablespoon of the blueberry dough and top with the rest of the white mixture.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Enjoy! They are truly delicious, nice and moist inside. They disappear quickly though.

That’s why I have three muffin pans, for the times I want the muffins to stay un-devoured for more than 12 hours. 🙂

This bread is because CARROTS. They are everywhere, really cheap and here in Norway they are often sold in huge 1,5kg bags so I always end up getting stuck with lots of carrots.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup or 100ml lukewarm water

1/2 cup or 100ml milk

100g or medium carrot grated

3 Tbsp canola (rapeseed) oil

3 Tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

2 1/4 cup white flour

1 1/2 cup wholewheat flour

2 1/4 tsp dry instant yeast

Method:

Put ingredients in your bread machine in order suggested by manufacturer’s instructions. Set for wholewheat program, large (if you have that option.) My bread machine heats the ingredients up a little bit first to avoid mixing fridge-cold milk with yeast. That’s an awesome feature but if you don’t have that just make sure the mixture of milk and water end up being tepid/lukewarm.

This bread freezes very well. I pop half of it into the freezer as soon as it cools down and take it out again once we’re done with the first half. It’s wonderfully full-bodied and moist.